In Kenya, Bitcoin linked to popular mobile payment system

A project underway in Kenya is linking Bitcoin with M-Pesa, a popular mobile payments system, in an experiment designed to spur innovative payments in Africa. Kipochi , which means wallet in Swahili, is a web service launched earlier this month by entrepreneur and programmer Pelle Braendgaard, who has followed digital currencies since the 1990s. The service lets people buy bitcoins using M-Pesa, a widely used mobile payments service launched by Kenyan operator Safaricom with partner Vodafone in 2007. About a third of Kenya's 44 million people use the service to transfer small amounts to other people using their phone number and to merchants. M-Pesa runs on a SIM card on feature phones and uses an operator menu to perform transactions. A network of agents not affiliated with banks accept M-Pesa deposits to credit accounts. Small fees are charged to transfer and withdraw mon...